MIRIAM CAREY MYSTERY

'Everybody knew it was a cover-up'

Secret Service officer blows lid off 'Murdered Mom' case

Garth Kant is WND Washington news editor. Previously, he spent five years writing, copy-editing and producing at "CNN Headline News," three years writing, copy-editing and training writers at MSNBC, and also served several local TV newsrooms as producer, executive producer and assistant news director. His most recent book is "Capitol Crime: Washington's cover-up of the Killing of Miriam Carey." He also is the author of the McGraw-Hill textbook, "How to Write Television News."

WASHINGTON – Three years to the day after her death at the hands of federal officers on Oct. 3, 2013, the cover-up over the shooting of unarmed, suburban mother Miriam Carey is unraveling in a sensational way.

An informant has stepped forward to confirm a cover-up by federal law enforcement officers in the Carey killing.

A Secret Service officer, upset over what he sees as the unjust shooting, delivered the bombshell revelation.

“Everybody knew it was a cover-up,” the officer bluntly told WND in an interview.

Bullet holes in rear of Carey’s car(Photo provided by Department of Justice)

In fact, he said his fellow officers initially thought “someone was going to jail over it because it was such an obvious bad shooting.”

“Secret Service policy had been so obviously violated.”

Specifically, he said, “They all knew it was unlawful to pursue Carey because no felony had been committed.”

Asked if federal officers had lied about the facts of the case, the Secret Service officer said there was no doubt about that, remarking, “Oh, yes. Absolutely.”

Carey family attorney and former New York police officer Eric Sanders confirmed to WND that the informant is a U.S. Secret Service officer who has spent many years on the force. Sanders told WND he has seen credentials verifying the officer is currently a member of the Uniformed Division of the Secret Service. The officer told WND he personally knows two of the officers who were at the scene when Carey was killed.

Carey family attorney Eric Sanders

With her infant daughter strapped into the backseat, Carey Miriam drove up to a White House entrance guard post at 15th and E streets NW on Oct. 3, 2013, apparently by mistake, because she immediately made a U-turn to try to leave.

No one on duty stopped her from entering; however, an off-duty Secret Service agent, for some unexplained reason, did try to prevent her from leaving by dragging a bicycle rack in front of her car, which she drove around and departed.

Trying to leave the White House grounds is not illegal. Yet, for reasons never explained by officials, Secret Service and Capitol Police officers chased Carey, shot her five times from the back and killed her.

The media reported she rammed a security gate, ran over a police officer and fled at high speed. None of that turned out to be true.

The official justification is that federal officers shot the woman in the back and killed her – in self-defense.
WND has investigated the Carey case in depth since the beginning. The stunning facts and details of the investigation are revealed in WND Books’ “Capitol Crime: Washington’s Cover-Up of the Killing of Miriam Carey,” released just last week.

WND obtained the official police report by filing a Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, request, then winning an appeal to the Washington mayor’s office after the Metropolitan Police Department denied the request.

WND, represented by the government-watchdog group Judicial Watch, is currently suing the Justice Department to obtain a 92-page memo withheld from the FOIA documents that details the findings and conclusions of the investigation, and which should explain why the U.S. Attorney’s office declined to file criminal charges against any of the officers who shot and killed Carey.

The fact that the Justice Department announced on July 10, 2014, that no charges would be filed against any officers involved in the shooting contrasts sharply with what officers apparently expected.

The Secret Service officer who spoke with WND said the force was abuzz with talk of someone going to jail after the shooting, saying, “I heard these statements in person at the White House.”

‘He told them there was a baby in the car’

The officer said one of the lies in the official story of the Carey case was that officers did not know there was a child in the car until the infant was discovered at the scene of the deadly shooting and removed from the bullet-riddled vehicle, covered in blood and glass.

As the photograph evidence obtained by WND shown below demonstrated, it was nothing short of a miracle the child survived the barrage of bullets, as rods in a police photo showing the angles of the shots demonstrate at least one just missed the child seat by about an inch or two.

(Photo provided by Department of Justice)

Another photo shows the car seat was splattered with glass and blood:

(Photo provided by Department of Justice)

The official story from the DOJ is the child was not “seriously” injured. But the Capitol Police officer who removed the child from the car said she was “covered in glass and blood,” and they had her quickly whisked off to the hospital.

The photos show shattered glass strewn all around the child seat.

Even more ominously, they appear to show blood smears or spatter on the side of the child seat.

The side where the bullet hit.

That raises serious questions:

Is it Carey’s blood or her child’s?

Was the child injured?

If so, how seriously?

Was she shot?

If so, how badly was she wounded?

Did she suffer cuts from flying glass?

Did she suffer any other physical trauma?

What about psychological trauma?

What is the effect on a 14-month-old child who witnesses her own mother shot to death in front of her?

The source said the Secret Service officer who first spotted Carey’s car at the White House was adamant that he reported the child’s presence in the car over the radio.

The source said, on the morning after the shooting during roll call, “I heard him say he told them there was a baby in the car, and he felt slighted that they said they didn’t know that, when he had told them that.”

“He was very vocal about the fact that he had told them that there was a baby in the car,” recalled the source.

“The next day after the shooting, during roll call, he was very persistent in stating that he had told them that there was a baby in the car. And, of course, when it came out, they said they didn’t know. He insisted he told them there was a baby in the car.”

The source said the guard post where Carey entered was that officer’s permanent position, and, “He was upset when he heard they claim they didn’t know there was a baby in the car. He said, ‘I told them that. Why did they say there wasn’t?’ He felt like they made him look bad and had slighted him.”

‘It shouldn’t have happened’

WND asked why would the department lie about that fact.

Miriam and her sister Valarie Carey

“First of all, they weren’t supposed to chase the car,” he replied, adding, “that was a known fact” in the department.

He said officers should not have chased Carey’s car because, “She did not commit a felony. But they went in hot pursuit of the car. A tourist who didn’t commit a crime. It shouldn’t have happened.”

That conforms with what WND learned and reported in June 2015, when it obtained policy rules in the Secret Service manual the government has refused to release to the public. They can be read here.

The U.S. Secret Service Operational Procedures guidelines on “Vehicular Pursuits” states under the heading “General Policy”:

A member shall not become engaged in a vehicular pursuit except to effect the arrest or prevent the escape, when every other means of effecting the arrest or preventing the escape has been exhausted, of a person who has committed a felony or attempted to commit a felony in the member’s presence, or when a felony has been committed and the member has reasonable grounds to believe the person he/she is attempting to apprehend has committed the felony; provided that the felony for which the arrest is sought involved an actual or threatened attack which the member has reasonable cause to believe could result in death or serious bodily injury.

Not only did Miriam Carey not commit a felony, officials never even accused her of committing a crime. Nothing in the police report cited any laws Carey broke at the White House. The application for the search warrant for Carey’s car and apartment, contained in that report, never accused her of violating any laws at all.

An affidavit filed by the Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department in support of the search warrant merely accused Carey of violating “several traffic regulations.”

Furthermore, nothing in the July 10, 2014, Justice Department statement exonerating officers said she committed any crimes to instigate the chase.

‘This one was different’

The source had another compelling reason why officers should never have chased Carey in the first place, and certainly shouldn’t have killed her in a hail of bullets.

He described mistaken turns into that White House guard post as “something routine that happens every day.”

“Every, every day. I’ve worked the post many times. It happens every day.”

Why was this incident different?

“This one was different,” said the source, “because the officers got emotional when that guy (an off-duty Secret Service officer carrying a cooler) put the bike rack out and he got knocked over.”

Off-duty Secret Service Officer tries to block Miriam Carey from leaving White House entrance. Photo provided by U.S. Attorney’s Office.

“So when that goes over the air, they don’t know he’s not on duty. It sounds like, ‘Oh, one of our guys got hit,’ because they know him by name. He got knocked over, so there was an emotional response. People were angry.”

The source said that was why they pursued Carey, and with such ferociousness. He said the intervention by the off-duty officer in civilian clothes touched off the chain of events that made the Carey case dramatically different than all those other “routine” wrong turns.

According to the evidence WND obtained by FOIA, the off-duty officer did not identify himself to Carey as a law enforcement officer. Not one of the civilian witnesses at the White House guard post said the off-duty officer identified himself as a law enforcement officer. It appears, as far as Carey knew, he was someone off the street dragging a fence in front of her car for no reason.

And it wasn’t even accurate that the off-duty officer was hit by her car.

The police report did contain a number of references to Carey’s car having struck a gate (or, bike rack) and knocking down the man holding up that gate.

That description of events was confirmed by a witness at the White House who was a visitor from Australia. The witness indicated Carey tried to avoid hitting the gate and the officer. But when she tried to drive around the gate, the officer moved it right back in front of her.

The witness said, “A male was pulling a gate in front of the vehicle to keep the vehicle in the area. The vehicle attempted to flee the area but the man pulled the gate back in front of the vehicle. The vehicle then hit the gate knocking this man to the ground.”

On top of all that, the police affidavit requesting a search warrant did not state that Carey was accused of assaulting an officer, merely that her “vehicle pushed over the bicycle rack, knocking the officer to the ground.”

‘It would’ve been a whole different story’

But that’s not how the event was portrayed to officers in real time.

WND asked: What actually went over the air? What was said on the radio?

“From my understanding,” said the source, “they went over the air with his name and said he got hit by a car; he got knocked over. So, when that goes over the air, it’s not like this is just some guy walking down the street – this is one of our guys who got hit.”

The Secret Service officer said it was not the officers manning the guard post who touched off the chase.

“The guys who were working at that post, that wasn’t their response. They weren’t so emotional about her leaving. They wanted to go home, man. It’s like 2:15. They were like, ‘Oh well, somebody sped off. I don’t feel like filling out paperwork or pursuing this any further.'”

The source said the key to what touched off the chase was the report that went out over the radio that an officer had been struck.

Miriam Carey

“Now, this is going over the air and you’ve got these guys out here – these overzealous types who want to ride around and do something – they hear that they are immediately racing toward the direction of this car. That’s what happened.”

The source summed up, “If that guy with the bike rack hadn’t done what he did, it would’ve been a whole different story.”

WND asked if it was his understanding that the officers who chased Carey were not those on duty at the post; they were who overheard the radio call.

“From my understanding, it was the guys in a patrol unit who heard the radio call from the White House. There were other units that joined in.”

He said one of those units was called “Hailstone,” but he wasn’t sure if it was Hailstone North or Hailstone South.

“I do not know why the units have names,” he said. “They never talked about the significance of the names. I guess it’s just a way for them to sound like a tough elite group.”

He added, “The patrol units are the guys who responded to the call. They are the ones who were at the Capitol. They fired their weapons. The guys who worked that post at 15th and E street do not have vehicles.”

Shot in the back

Carey was shot five times, once in the side of the head from the rear, three times in the back and once in the arm. Somehow, the bullets all missed her one-year-old child.

There were two shooting scenes in the Carey case. At both, officers claimed said they fired in self-defense. However, the evidence contradicts that claim.

Secret Service and Capitol Police officers fired a total of 26 bullets at Carey. Eight of the bullets were fired at Garfield Circle, just below the Capitol. Eighteen were fired at a U.S. Capitol Police guard post in the 100 block of Constitution Ave, in between the Hart Senate Office building and the U.S. Supreme Court.

Video shot by a news crew at Garfield Circle clearly demonstrates she was driving away from the officers well before they fired.

In fact, the audio track of the video also demonstrates Carey was no longer even near the officers, and seemingly a safe distance away, when the shots are heard.

The first officer to shoot at Carey claimed he pulled the trigger because he feared for his life – even though she was driving away from him.

And he shot at her from the back.

The situation was similar at the second shooting scene on Constitution Avenue.

Even though the official Justice Department account said, “Ms. Carey revved her engine and then reversed her vehicle and drove directly at a U.S. Capitol Police officer who was approaching Ms. Carey’s vehicle from behind,” before two officers fired at her, not one of the five witnesses said Carey’s car was driving toward an officer.

‘Lying is so prevalent that it’s not lying’

Another lie the source said was told about the Carey case involved the speed of the pursuit.

He told WND, “This patrol unit drives around the White House. He went over the air and said he was chasing this car. When he went over the air, initially, he gave his rate of speed at, I don’t remember the exact rate of speed he said he was going, but it was fast. And after he gave his rate of speed, the supervisor or the sergeant on that shift went over the air and changed the rate of speed he was going, because he knew it looked bad. He wasn’t supposed to be going in hot pursuit of this car.”

WND asked: What do you mean that supervisor or sergeant told the officer to change the rate of speed he was going? Was he telling him to slow down or just report it differently?

“After the unit gave his direction and his rate of speed and said he was going about 70 or 80 miles an hour, the supervisor or sergeant said, ‘Be advised that you are going about 30.’ He changed it real quick because he knew that was wrong to be going that speed.”

The source said the fact that the supervisor so brazenly corrected the officer’s speed over the air, where everyone could hear it, was one illustration of why, “Everybody knew it was a cover-up.”

He said it was just obvious the story was being changed as it happened.

And the lies and the cover-up were, to some extent, just business as usual.

“That wasn’t even something that was a big deal. I mean, this is stuff that everybody knows. That’s how it is there. Everybody knows it. That’s the way it is. So people stop talking about it.”

He continued, “Once the chief came in and said the Department of Justice is going to defend our guys and told us the video showed it was a good shoot, I think people kind of dropped it. It (the debate over whether was a good shoot) didn’t last long.”

Amy, Valarie and Miriam Carey

Were officers told to keep quiet?

“Officers are always told to keep quiet. For anything that happens. They’ll always say keep your mouth shut. Don’t talk to the media, and watch who is around you when you have conversations about this incident.”

Did he witness anyone ordered to lie?

“I can’t remember anyone saying to lie, but lying is so prevalent that it’s not lying,” he replied with a laugh. “It’s like an automatic thing. Lying is so prevalent they don’t even have to tell people to lie. People are so programmed they don’t have to be told to lie. It’s done out of fear.”

The source said the fact the chase ended up in a shooting death rattled him and his colleagues in the Secret Service Uniformed Division.

“We were all in shock because we had never heard of anything like that happening, ever. There was nobody at work that had ever discharged their weapon since I started. So that was a shock.”

It touched off a controversy in the department over whether the killing of Carey was justified.

“Some of us were saying it was a bad shoot, people like myself. Some people said it was a good shoot. I don’t think there were too many people who were vocal about it, but there were some. There were some conversations, one-on-one, and debate going on. There were definitely people who thought it was a bad shoot and unnecessary.”

‘I know their mentality’

The source said other factors may have contributed to the decision by officers to chase and kill Carey, rather than treating her case like other routine wrong turns into the White House guard post.

“Personally, I think another factor was because of the Navy Yard shooting just a few weeks before,” he explained. “There was a mentality of, ‘We’ve got to make sure nothing happens. We’ve got to hold the down the fort.’ That kind of thing.”

WND asked: Since they were already on a heightened state of alert, did the added emotion of somebody they knew supposedly getting hit help trigger the forceful response?

“Definitely. I know the people who work in patrol units. I know their mentality. I know how they are.”

The source suggested another reason he believed officers chased and shot the young African-America mother.

“I strongly believe race is definitely involved,” he insisted. “I believe that’s why they went in hot pursuit and acted the way they did when they got there.”

WND noted the Secret Service is a multiethnic force and asked why race would be a factor.

“Yes, it’s a multiethnic force, but the force is majority Caucasian. There are people of other races, but certain positions have always been for Caucasians. Like that patrol unit.”

He continued, “Although the force is multiethnic, it’s not like that for somebody that on the inside. It’s kind of hard to understand. You’ve got to be inside to understand. Like that position, those guys in that unit, that’s not a black person position. Everybody knows that. And if you get involved in an incident out there, you better show that you’re part of that little club to be accepted, and to tolerate the things that they do, the profiling, the harassing of the homeless. You have to do pretty much anything that shows you are one of the boys.”

The source said there was pressure on all the officers to toe the line and tell the company story about what happened to Carey. But he described a department in which black officers felt especially pressured to play along.

Carey sisters

“Of course they thought they couldn’t speak out. They would never ever, ever do that. Black people in the agency are very, very scared. Some even convinced themselves it was a good shoot. People fear for their jobs. Black people are even afraid to call in sick. So, for an incident as big as this one here, they didn’t have to be told to be quiet. It’s like they are programmed. That is the mindset the black people have there. We understand we have to keep our mouths shut. And we have to pick and choose our battles.”

He acknowledged, “We do have high-ranking African-Americans,” and the last (uniformed division) chief was black. “But that never meant anything.”

He believes there is “systematic racism inside the agency. Everybody knows it. People are scared. They’ll never speak about it.”

But, he added, “It wasn’t just blacks. There were other people in the agency who felt the shooting wasn’t justified. There white people who felt that, too. There were debates going on. But, as far as speaking out about it, even the white people were scared.”

He concluded with a chilling reflection.

“What really struck me was the response to the shooting was almost like it was a deer or something. I mean, in roll call, there was no sympathy toward the victim. I’m not surprised. I mean, we’ve had guys on the force who have died or were murdered and the response was the same way.”

Officers did not try to prevent Carey from entering a White House guard post

Officers tried to prevent Carey from leaving a White House guard post

Officers gave no reason for stopping Carey

Officers gave no reason for pursuing Carey

Carey did not flee or speed away

Carey did not run over an officer

Police knew Carey was not a terrorist before they shot her

Her child in the backseat was covered in glass and blood

Secret Service officers violated their use-of-force policy

Police statements are missing

Witness statements are missing

Evidence is missing

Police refuse to release findings justifying the shooting

Even long before WND uncovered many of those details, once he heard the basic facts of the case in December of 2013, famed civil libertarian Nat Hentoff said from all of the evidence he had seen in WND’s reports, which he called very thorough and easily corroborated, “[T]his is a classic case of police out of control and, therefore, guilty of plain murder.”